Link building / digital pr

Discussions
#1

Curious whether any of you guys have experience with link building or digital outreach? And if so, do you think that it’s something that someone who was really smart and motivated but entry-level could learn to do with an initial chunk of really good training and on-the-job experience for, let’s say, a month?

I know that link building has a reputation as being a slimy industry - I almost would rather use the term “digital pr”. It’s all about the high quality, person-to-person genuine relationship building, and reaching out with relevant (and actually interesting/useful) content to influencers/press that would be interested in it.

(This is related to this other business idea I’m exploring).

I like the way that companies like wpromote and pageonepower (#2 for “link building service” in google by the way) describe what they do.

Thanks!

#2

I have lots of experience of being on the other end of slimy ‘SEO specialists’ spamming me to try to get backlinks on my blog. It really winds me up. I have been known to send them links to this:
http://finchsells.com/2012/09/03/the-rise-of-the-content-marketing-moron/

1 Like
#3

That’s hilarious.

“In exchange for this monumental tour de force of literature…”

Yeah totally though. I think the key is high quality content and highly relevant and personal outreach. I think those are timeless fundamentals that will always be valuable (for both sides)

#4

You know it’s interesting - the very fact that there is so much horribly done link building out there is kind of proof that you could probably build a great business out of doing it properly.

If people doing it so horribly are probably making money (otherwise they would likely stop), you could probably do amazingly well by doing a solid job of it.

Kind of like email. The fact that there is so much spam which as horrible as it is is somehow still profit all for people / proves that doing legit email marketing / automation is a great business to be in.

–

I was reading through the comments on that post. This one stood out to me:

Out of the litany of guest post requests that I have received over the years I have only had one (1), yes “1” individual whom I chose to submit a couple of articles. She wrote concise, articulate and 100% original content that is right on point to the subject matter of the site in question.

The 1 that they describe is the kind of content/outreach that I’m talking about. I’m not saying it would be easy but I think it could totally work. And there are lots of reputable and non spammy link building companies out there, despite the overwhelming number of bad ones.

(Wrote on phone)